Rehabilitation
by Ticialicious
Summary: What if they brought Ford back to Atlantis? Written for the UOA tourney.


"Lieutenant!" Sheppard barked as he saw the young man reaching for the wraith stunner. "Don't." He begged.

Just then he heard the whine of Wraith darts and looked up. Ford took the opportunity to run, with John close on his heels.

"Ford!" He called out desperately. "Keep your hands where I can see them."

Ford stopped near a clearing. As he defiantly raised his hands in the air, John appealed to the young Lieutenant. "We want to help."

But Ford reached for his gun, and with the sound of the Wraith darts drawing closer, John opened fire. He hit him in the leg, but Aiden still raised his gun higher.

"You're not getting off this planet." John said as the flash of a culling beam filled the clearing.

Aiden glanced at the open space where the wraith darts were sweeping their beams back and forth, trying to pick up the humans they obviously knew were there.

"I'll show you!" Ford declared. "You'll..."

The red shot of a stun beam hit him and he went down hard. He was back up quickly though, and Ronon kept firing until Aiden stayed down.

"Told you I'd get him for you." Ronon stated.

***

John paced the hall outside the isolation room, unable to hide his anger and his impatience, and unwilling to even try. He'd just come from a meeting with Caldwell, who had commended him on his capture of Aiden, and insulted him in the same breath, albeit subtly. John really didn't like that man right now. Beckett wouldn't let him into see Ford until he'd calmed down, though, so he was attempting to do just that.

"Oh, hey, there you are." He heard McKay's voice from down the hall and spun around. "You okay?"

John took a deep breath as Rodney drew near. "Yeah. We got him back. I'm okay." He felt better just being able to say it. Not that he'd had any doubts. He knew they'd find him and bring him home. He didn't leave people behind.

Rodney gave him a crooked smile. "Yes, well." He rubbed his hands together. "So, you're here to see Ford, then? I was hoping to, you know, peek in on him. Didn't want to bother him, but Beckett said it might help. You know. With the withdrawl." His finger twirled the air near his head. "Shall we?"

John took another deep calming breath and nodded.

The doors slid open and John followed Rodney. He looked down from the window of the isolation room where Aiden was being kept. Strapped down to a bed and under guard, he couldn't help flinching when the Lieutenant turned his eyes to glare at them. Rodney was in the lead and suddenly came up short, causing John to nearly run into his back at the sudden stop.

"You know, ummm... maybe this isn't such a good idea. Me being here. I did shoot him and, well..." Rodney stopped, looking guilty and sheepish all at once.

"Come on, Rodney. I shot him, too. Once he's better, he'll forgive us both." John said as he saw Ford's eyes narrow in anger.

"He wants to kill me!" McKay's voice practically squeaked out, and John rolled his eyes.

"We've _all_ wanted to kill you at times, McKay. Just... don't get too close to him." John grinned, trying to tease, but it wasn't a very convincing smile. John was still hurting too much from the fact that it wasn't just McKay that Ford wanted to kill right now.

"Ah, there you boys are. I was wondering when you'd get here. Feeling a wee bit better, Colonel?" Beckett didn't even pause to let John answer. "Alrighty then. I'll let one of you in at a time, and I'd like it if you'd sit with him. He's just starting to feel the withdrawal and it's going to get a bit rough. He did have a bit of the enzyme on him when we brought him in, probably from the wraith he'd killed on the planet. So, we're going to be giving him small doses of that to ease him off of his dependence. Hopefully, it'll be enough to see him through this. He's still very angry and insisting to everyone that he's perfectly fine. He says he's better than fine, actually, and has some fool notion that an army of men like him would... well, it's no matter. He's not thinking clearly and we need to get the drug out of his system. The sooner the better, as far as I'm concerned." Beckett fiddled with the chart that he was holding. "Yes, well, which one of you wants to go first?"

"I'll go."

"He'll go."

John held up his hand just as Rodney pointed to him at the same time. John quirked up one eyebrow and shook his head in amusement.

"Come on, Carson." He said as he clapped one hand on the good doctor's shoulder. "Let's go keep our young lieutenant company."

***

"So, it turns out that it was some kind of Wraith virus. Can you believe it? McKay could give you more details, if you really want them... which, trust me, you don't. He finds it all very fascinating. Won't stop talking about it. Oh, and don't listen to him if he tells you about how I was reckless, flying him dangerously close to the sun. I knew we were perfectly fine, but it gives him something to complain about, and you know how he loves to complain..."

John had been talking for awhile, just saying anything that came to mind. Ford had been quiet for a good long while, just listening, twitching once in awhile at the restraints that held him down. Sheppard, though, knew it wouldn't be long before...

"Look, Major... Colonel." He grimaced. "Listen to me. I'm fine." Ah, yes, there it was. The withdrawal was starting to get to him. Small rivulets of sweat ran down his face and his hands were starting to shake. Just little tremors, but John knew that it would get worse before it got better.

"Aiden, you're not fine. We're not going to turn you loose in the galaxy addicted to a drug, and we are _not_ going to be making an army of super soldiers. It's a bad idea. What's going to happen is this: you're going to get better, you're going to get off the enzyme, and you're going to be back on my team." John settled back, staring him in the eyes. "We're not giving up on you, don't _you_ give up on us."

Lieutenant Aiden Ford went crazy.

"You have no right to keep me here!" He hissed. " You just want me to die. Just give me the enzyme!" His eyes didn't leave John's as he began pulling against his restraints, determined to get off of this bed and snap Sheppard's neck. "Let me go! LET ME GO! I'll kill you, I swear. I'll get out of here and I'll kill you. I'll kill everyone on this base!"

John closed his eyes. It was going to be a long night.

***

It was a fight to keep Ford on Atlantis. The arguments with Caldwell were many and the theme didn't vary throughout all of the shouting. Caldwell wanted Ford back on Earth to face punishment. John wanted him to stay, get better, and rejoin his team. In the end, John won.

Of course, Elizabeth probably had a good deal to do with that. She fought tooth and nail to keep Ford there.

And Ford had a good deal _more_ to do with it. After four days of ranting, raving, spitting, and fighting with them, he'd fallen deeply asleep. When he'd woken up, he couldn't look any of them in the eye. His remorse had been clear and sincere.

His puppy dog face was enough to melt the toughest hearts, although Caldwell could hardly admit to that.

So Ford was allowed to stay, Caldwell only grumbled a little bit about taking it to their superiors, and Elizabeth hid a smile behind her eyes.

Now the road to being a team again was almost clear. It would be months, Carson said, before he'd clear Lieutenant Ford for active duty, a stipulation that pleased Caldwell, who thought that he could always just drag Ford back to Earth if anything happened between now and then.

In the meantime, however, John, Teyla and Rodney were still one man short. Missions had to go on, they had to keep fighting.

They'd figure something out, John knew. Maybe they could talk Ronon into staying and helping them out.

Just as soon as they got Cadman out of McKay's head...

***The end***


End file.
